At this time of the year, a number of students who have sat the ‘Selective Schools Entrance Exam’ receive their results and potentially an offer to a state selective or semi-selective school. These schools are seen by some as providing education targeting those who are gifted students. In previous newsletters, I have provided an outline of my concerns about Selective schools. Put simply, I do not think they cater well to the majority of the students that attend them and I do not think they are good for our education system generally. They are elitist and may create a ‘brain drain’ out of comprehensive schools. Students who are high achievers in comprehensive school settings suddenly may have a crisis of confidence as they are mixed with other high achievers from other schools and not all can be at the top of the class. Many schools that are promoted as ‘selective’ are in fact semi-selective, segregating a single top performing academic class from a school of underachievers who consider the one academic class as outcasts. A significant amount of research suggests that parents should reconsider the once popular view that selective schools are something to aspire to. They may start with top performing students but they do not necessarily end up this way. Sure they feature in league tables, but ask yourself, when you take the top 5% out of schools, why don’t all these students finish in the top 5%?

I am aware that this year, many of the parents who received offers for their children to attend selective schools have chosen not to and I firmly believe their faith in St Francis will be rewarded. We have many good news stories that we will share about our first ever Year 12 graduating class, many of whom have already been offered opportunities to study at various universities, prior to even sitting their HSC.  

A number of our teaching staff have completed a mini-certificate of Gifted Education (mini-COGE) with the University of NSW. We have an ongoing commitment to work with the UNSW to build the capacity of our staff.  

St Francis is now offering a significant range of co-curricular activities to build the skills and experience of our talented students. We have demonstrated strong results in debating and public speaking competitions. Students have achieved excellent results in the University of Sydney’s ICAS competitions. We have participated in the Year 9 Youth of the Year Competition and excelled this year finishing second in the Tournament of the Minds which was, entered for the first time. Our team comprised of Year 7 students who competed against high school teams that were made up of much older students.

We have had a history of recognising talented writers and creative artists in the SPLICED program which publishes student works. Creative artists are also offered an opportunity to shine in the ‘Christmas Art’ competition and our students have a strong record of being finalists and winning awards in this competition. SFCC students have also excelled in this year’s Ethics Olympiad. Year 5 students next year will be working with University of Western Sydney on the Bradfield City Development project with the NSW Government.

2023 will also see a partnership between SFCC and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to offer STEM based courses to a select group of Year 11 students. The students will travel weekly to UTS and be lectured by UTS staff and use their facilities. Students will return to SFCC and use timetabled lessons to complete units of work. If students receive a Band 4 or higher result for the HSC, they will be given automatic entry to UTS to study STEM based degree courses.

Please rest assured that no matter where your child is academically, we are doing everything we can to accurately access their current learning needs, tracking their growth and progress, are working to continually challenge them to improve and be lifelong learners.

May God continue to bless you.

Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal